Sous le ciel de Paris
by GamblingDementor
Summary: Levi teaches French in the same school as Hange teaches science. On a school trip to France, headmaster Erwin Smith insisted on sending her with him to accompany the group of students. What might happen under the sky of Paris? Fic inspired by the song by Edith Piaf "Sous le ciel de Paris". Rating will be modified in further chapters.
1. Marchent des amoureux

"You know what they say about Paris, don't you, Monsieur Ackerman?" Zoë asked in that annoying singing voice of hers as they walked down the Champs Élysées.  
She wasn't even looking at him when she addressed him like that with an accent that made him want to rip her throat so she could never try to speak French again. Her eyes were checking everything around her, taking in the boring shop window decorations and the ridiculous fashion choices of French people surrounding them. He gave a noncommittal grunt. She didn't acknowledge it. If anything, experience had taught him that she took grunting as a form of encouragement.  
"They say it's the most romantic city in the world."  
Another grunt of his went ignored as she kept on peeping her bullshit.  
"Are you romantic too, Levi?"  
"'Tch. No. I fucking hate Paris."  
"What?!"  
He gave her time to pick up her jaw. He tended to get this kind of reaction every time he admitted his opinion of his own home city and country.  
"You don't like Paris?!"  
"All French people hate Paris, really."  
"How is that even possible?"  
"People here are fucking rude."  
She snorted, a disgusting sound she made far too often and that made her nose wrinkle a little bit, like a goddamn rabbit. He hated rabbits.  
"Look who's talking."

They walked silently for the next couple minutes. Despite his outward grumpyness, Levi actually felt rather peaceful for some reason. He just didn't like to show it. He wouldn't tell, but every time he came back to his home country, he felt a deep surge of comfort just by hearing everyone speak French around him. It was silly, really, because he understood English just fine when he was in the States, and what people said was boring anyway (French or not, actually). Still. Hearing proper French around him was just about the only thing he liked about France. Not that he was fond of the United States either. To be fair, he didn't think there was any place where he felt happy and cheerful like Zoë always was.

The silence lasted only just as long as Zoë was able to shut up − not very long.  
"I'm glad you decided to come teach at our school, you know."  
Another grunt. He couldn't help those, though he knew that it was sadly more than enough to get her going again, rather than shut her up.  
"'Cause I'm glad I could come here with you. The French teacher before you never went to France with her students. I'd never been to Europe before."  
"Yeah, I could tell."  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
He didn't answer and she stuck out her tongue before giggling again.  
"Also I'm glad we've come to become friends, but that goes without saying."  
"Get over yourself, Hange, we're not friends. Erwin told you to come so there would be two teachers for the class and not just me. I was vehemently against it and only accepted because I was utterly defeated."  
"Call it as you want, darling, we've still been spending every lunch time together just the two of us for months and I know for a fact you don't just come because you like my lab. Quite the opposite, in fact."  
"It's fucking filthy."  
She giggled.  
"Yeah, it is."

The time they had told the students to meet up at was nearing and Levi started walking towards the Arc de Triomphe, where he had told the brats to find them.  
"Look at you, finding your way all on your own like the smart little French man you are!"  
He ignored the sly remark about his height, as always. He was thirty-four, far too old to take comments like that to heart.  
"I lived here, remember?"  
"Oh, I'll never forget that. I can just picture you as a little French boy, with a cute little striped shirt and a little beret."  
He pulled a face at that.  
"It's pronounced béret. You know I hate it when you try to speak French."  
"Oh, je sais."  
"Just fucking stop speaking French."  
"Can't stop, won't stop! We're in France, Levi! Omelette du fromage! Bonjour, Monsieur. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"  
"Ugh. I never should have accepted to take you with us."  
"I'm gonna buy the biggest box of chocolate for Erwin when we get back, just to thank him. French people make good chocolate, right?"  
"That's Belgians."  
"Yeah, yeah. Same difference."  
"This is why we hate you Americans."  
She giggled and grinned when she saw the students were already there, quietly sitting on the ground underneath the Arc de Triomphe. Levi almost gasped when he thought about all the dust on their clothes and vowed to keep even more distance with them than he usually did.

"Vous êtes tard, Monsieur!" shouted Eren Jaeger and was quickly silenced by Mikasa elbowing him in the ribs.  
"Ta gueule, Jaeger. Il est six heures pile."  
The little brat did not seem to understand until his sister whispered into his ear and his face fell. He was so easy to upset it was almost too easy. Levi really liked laughing at him − not that actual laughing was involved.  
"Bon, on va retourner à l'hôtel comme prévu. Tout le monde est là?"  
Levi never really bothered speaking slowly to make himself understood by his students. Most of them wouldn't understand a word anyway, so he wasted no effort for clarity. As usual, the best students translated for the others and they all nodded that yes, they were all here and ready to go to the hotel.  
"Parfait. Suivez-moi."

He led the group through the streets. They took the subway (Artlert almost got lost in the crowd, if not for Mikasa grabbing him like the mother hen she always was with the boy) and walked some more until they finally reached the cheap hotel where Erwin had booked their rooms. Or was it Zoë? She had been extremely involved in the planning of this trip, even though she was only accompanying them and had not actually initiated it, considering she did not speak French at all and was just a science teacher. But she had Erwin in her pocket and Levi had ended up stuck with her. He'd thought his friendship with headmaster Smith would have been enough to get rid of her, but it hadn't. The whole way to the hotel, she tried chatting with his students as she always did (the brats loved her, they found her fun and perky, if a bit too passionate about biology), though admittedly they were also her students, until Levi told her off for speaking English with them on a trip in fucking France.  
"But Levi, I don't really speak French!"  
"Pas mon problème. Chacun sa merde."  
There was something liberating about being rude to her in a language she couldn't understand, knowing she knew he had been insulting but not knowing exactly what he had said. Then again, he was never completely civil to her in English either.

Being on a school trip with dumb brats was just about the easiest way to navigate through a trip. Under the pretext of making them improve their French language skills, he simply asked them to do just about everything and they would comply. They were even excited about it. Most of them had probably never been to Europe − or anywhere outside their home state. That was why he had chosen this particular class, fourth group of the tenth year. Mostly poor kids from underprivileged families. Many of them were orphans, came from foster care or were simply dirt poor. Levi knew it made him sound ridiculous, or like he was bragging, but he was proud of himself for having convinced Erwin Smith, the cheapest man in the world, to have school fund pay for the trip.  
"Monsieur, où se trouve notre chambre d'hôtel, s'il vous plaît?" chirped Arlert to the hotel receptionist and Levi would be damned if he wasn't proud of him for saying the whole sentence perfectly. His accent could use some work but it was nothing compared to Zoë trying to speak a word of his native language.  
Sadly for the poor boy, the man responded as all French people do, as Levi did himself, as fast as he would with a native and with no regard for people who did not understand him. Arlert looked at him like he'd grown a second head and then at Levi himself. Levi shrugged and walked up to the counter.  
"Bonjour, une chambre au nom de Levi Ackerman?"  
"Vous êtes le professeur du groupe américain qui a réservé?"  
Levi glanced at the teenagers all staring at him with various expressions of admiration and hope and sighed. Yep, that was him. The teacher. He nodded. The man checked up something on the computer and smiled.  
"Voici les clef de votre chambre, Mr Ackerman. Et voici pour vous, jeune homme," he said to Arlert with a broad smile, handing him a pack of keys.  
They were these cards that acted as keys that Levi hated. Why not have a real key, one made out of metal? He still took his, feeling grumpy. Mikasa grabbed the cards from Armin's hands and began calling every student one by one, dispatching the keys to every one according to the rooms they would be sleeping in. Had she just remembered the room disposition from the trip program description he had given them a month ago? It should have been more surprising than it actually was, coming from her.  
"On se retrouve dans le hall à dix-neuf heures trente pour aller manger," Levi shouted out for everyone to hear, and those who understood nodded.

The first thing Levi noticed when he opened the door of his room was that the card worked perfectly, and he was glad for that, because he was used to these magnetic cards never working and hotel staff making all sorts of fuss when you had to replace them. The second thing he noticed was that the room looked and smelled clean, and if he'd been a different kind of man, he would have smiled at that. The third thing he noticed was that there were two beds in the room, which was odd and made him frown. The fourth thing he noticed was enough to make him downright angry, though, for Zoë Hange was standing by the window of the room, looking at the sky.

"The fuck are you doing here?"

She startled and turned to him, smiling broadly.

"Just look at this sky! It's so blue. Not a single cloud."

"I mean what are you doing in my room?"

"I just told you. I'm looking at the sky of Paris."

"Go to your own room for that, Four Eyes."

"… This is my room."

"Better have your shitty glasses checked soon, 'cause this is my room."

"Pretty sure this key is the key to my room, since the receptionist gave it to me, and it led me here."

Levi threw his bag on the closest bed and sank on it, grabbing his head between his hands.

He startled when Zoë sat on her own bed in front of him, but was thankful that she didn't sit on his, at the very least. He had no idea how long that pair of pants had gone without being washed.

"You know, I find it mildly insulting that you would get so upset over sharing a room with me."

For a split second, thoughts ran through his mind when he saw her looking quite blue, scary thoughts of what could happen if he just gave himself unto the temptation and simply… But none of that would happen. He wouldn't let himself. He decided right then to not let his mind wander to such silliness anymore.

"Your clothes are filthy, I don't share bathrooms and I think you snore."

She looked up and her eyes gave nothing away.

"I do snore," she whispered.

He snorted and she did laugh at that, a little bit, a laugh that did not reach her eyes.

"Do you want me to find another room?" she asked.

He nodded, not taking his eyes away from hers. After a long while, longer than was comfortable, she stood up, took her bag and left the room.


	2. L'espoir fleurit

Levi couldn't focus on anything after she left. It always ended like that with women he…Women he _nothing_, he told himself and shut that thought immediately. It was no use thinking about it. Not feeling like piling his clothes away in the cupboard properly or cleaning the bathroom sink just to make absolutely sure it was perfectly clean, he grabbed his plans for the next day and went over them. Notre-Dame and the Louvres museum. That'd keep the brats busy for a whole day, for sure. People said you needed at least two weeks to see everything in the Louvres. They'd only have a few hours. He wondered what Zoë would think of the mummies. They always scared the shit out of him when he was a kid. She'd probably tell him all about the way they were made, the way they were preserved, the products and chemicals used for all of it. Not that he minded hearing about that, not too much. And thinking about things he actually wouldn't have minded…

And there it was again. The nagging thought of Zoë Hange and him sharing a room was impossile to shake off, despite his best efforts. He hated it, hated her for it, hated himself for hating her for it. Before he noticed it, the time was up anyway, and it was almost half past seven, the time he had set with the students to meet in the hall.

Of course they were all there when he arrived. Obedient students, all of them. Crazy annoying, but he knew he wouldn't loose them in Paris because they wandered away, at least.

"Bon, on y va?"

"Non, monsieur. Miss Hange est manquante," said Sasha, who had always liked Zoë for some reason.

"Saleté de binoclarde…"

Waiting didn't take long. As if she'd been waiting for a cue for an entry in style, Zoë appeared out of a door just behind them.

"Hey, you're all here!"

"Where have you been?!"

"Hey, calm your handsome little undercut, mister, I was putting my bag in the luggage room, they're cleaning the rooms and mine's not ready yet."

She chuckled when she saw him glare at her and pinched his cheek. He decided to ignore that.

"Everything's settled for the rooms then?"

"Yeah. Though you'll get moved too, they said you can't stay in a room with two beds, they're awfully packed and they don't have an extra bed to spare."

"And you didn't think to tell me that?"

"Well, I just told you."

He glared at her.

"What about my bag? I left it up there."

"They'll take it from your old room and put it in the new, Levi, it's not a big deal."

Levi did not like the idea of someone touching his things, but there wasn't much he could do about it now.

"Okay," he said and turned his back to her to talk to the students. "On y va."

"Où allons-nous?" asked Armin in that ever polite tone.

"Manger."

That wasn't much of an answer and Levi knew it, but he was irritated that evening and did not want to talk.

Levi hadn't bothered looking at restaurants but the hotel was in a part of Paris he knew very well and he just decided to go to a place he'd liked when he still lived here. Thankfully, the small falafel snack was still in business and the bells still rang with their horrible sound he remembered when he pushed the door open, followed by the flock of students looking around as if they'd never been in a snack bar before.

"Levi Ackerman!" shouted the booming voice he recognized immediately as belonging to the owner of the place, a man he'd never been really close to, but that he would still greet with a nod if he met him across the street. Friend of his parents, but Levi himself wasn't really friends with his own parents, so that barely counted. What was his name again? He did not remember. He hadn't eaten his falafels in years, though, and hoped they were still just as good.

"Mais c'est le petit Levi! Des années qu'on t'a pas vu dans le quartier, toi, dis donc."

"Tch."

"En voilà un qui a pas changé, alors!"

He laughed again. If there was something Levi hated, it was when people expected him to make small talk, and the man himself spoke for longer than he cared for, too. He tuned out of what he was saying to take a look at his students around him. Some of them, the good students, were listening attentively, probably trying to understand what they were saying − or rather was the man was saying. Zoë was looking around in amazement − she looked like she'd never seen a falafel snack in her life. Finally, after what felt like hours, the man took their orders and disappeared in the kitchen.

When he brought their plates, he put a bottle of red wine in front of Levi, between him and Zoë, and winked.

"Cadeau de la maison pour ta copine et toi."

A couple of seconds passed, till word got around the students of what the man had just called Zoë Levi's girlfriend, and all at once they started chattering, laughing, pointing. There were a few "I told you so!" thrown around.

"On n'est pas ensemble," simply said Levi. "Mais merci."

There was no point in being angry about it. It'd just fuel the students' reaction.

"Oh. Pardon. Je ne voulais pas…"

"_Merci_," said Levi and the man went away.

Did they look like a couple? Did he give a vibe of love and affection toward her, now? And, more importantly, did _she_ look like she liked him?

Zoë obviously had no idea what had happened, but she did not seem to care. She gave him a dashing smile and grabbed the bottle.

"He gave us that? Haha, that's great! I love wine!"

"Knock yourself out."

And that she did. She wasn't lying when she said she loved wine − she drank twice as much as he did during the course of the meal. She scoffed when he mentioned it.

"Hey, I'm twice as big as you, so it's just the same effect!" she laughed.

He had nothing to say to that. In fact, Zoë did look like the kind of person who would be able to drink more than him without being affected by it. And if she was, by any chance, a little bit drunk, she was a chatty sort of drunk, much like her usual self. For what seemed like hours, she talked and talked about everything and anything about the trip and the city and the students, changing the subject mid-sentence more often than not, explaining him things he'd never need to know about architecture and history and sociology and suddenly he understood why she'd come to Paris. She seemed very passionate about what they were going to do and see and experience. Some of the students were listening as well and seemed fascinated, if a little weirded out at her endless rambling. The evening came to an end and Levi felt much more peaceful than he had beforehand, although the alcohol might have played a part in that. Maybe bringing her wasn't such a bad idea after all, if they could just remain like this at a safe distance, talking about generic things. He'd had a very nice evening all in all.

How wrong he was, he only realized when they got back to the hotel. He was given a new key card and sauntered to his new room, his mind a tiny bit blurry. You wouldn't tell, but Levi was actually the happy sort of drunk. He wasn't drunk, not really, but he was a little tipsy and he felt lightheaded − in the best way. A couple of students wished him a good night on his way to bed and he was even kind enough to nod in acknowledgement. In fact, he had to say he felt very well indeed. Until he pushed the door open and, for the second time that day, found Zoë standing by the window and looking at the sky of Paris.

"Putain de merde, encore toi!"

The word escaped his lips before he even thought that she wouldn't understand them anyway. She turned around and smiled that lazy peaceful smile of hers, the one she got when she was sated and content.

"I like you too, my sweet little French man. "

"What are you doing here?"

"Watching the sky. You can't see the stars too well in big cities, but it's still pretty."

"You know what I meant, Hange."

"It's my room, mon chéri."

He scanned the room. She was still carrying her backpack, and just stood there doing nothing. This was _his_ room, though, right? Yes, yes it was his bag on the right side of the… oh my god, a double bed. This definitely wasn't supposed to be in a room for just one person. Not with that bed. Just one big bed. For _two_ people. A king-sized bed for two people to sleep in together. Not just one person but two. Together.

"I thought you had our rooms changed," he finally said after calming himself down as he could.

"I thought so, too."

"How did that happen then?!"

She turned to face him and actually looked slightly guilty.

"I guess I don't speak French as well as I thought I did."

"What… What the fuck, Hange? You know you can't speak French."

"Yeah, well, the receptionist seemed to understand what I was saying just fine, you know? He nodded and all."

"Evidently he _didn't_ understand."

She dropped her bag on the floor and sat on the bed, making herself comfortable.

"Look, I'm sorry. I know you don't want to sleep with me but it looks like we're stuck."

A lengthy heavily uncivil conversation with the receptionist proved that they were, in fact, stuck. The hotel was full to the brink. There were no more rooms available for them except the one they were in. A lot of insults were tossed around before Levi accepted his fate and went back to his room with Zoë.

"I'm going to need more alcohol," he said as soon as they closed the door behind them.

"Ha, I'd love a drink!"

"You've had plenty already, Four Eyes. My turn now."

He spotted the minibar beneath the table and opened it. There were at least five bottles of red wine in it. Good. He took one, uncorked it, and gulped a long sip.

"Wow, Levi, I'm impressed."

"This is good wine, at least," he said and rubbed his mouth. "Bordeaux, I think."

He checked the bottle.

"Yep. Bordeaux. I haven't drunk Bordeaux in _years_."

"Is it better than California wine?"

He scoffed at her and didn't even grant her with a response. Stupid American.

Little by little, sip by sip, Levi forgot that he didn't like to let Zoë so close to him, he forgot that he didn't want her to know of his affections toward her, he forgot that Paris was a shithole of a city and that he was stuck here with her in just one bed, he forgot that the students were hopelessly bad at French and that she didn't speak a word of it and that because of her they were in the same room. In place of all that came Zoë, who drank her fair share of Bordeaux as well, Zoë with her pretty eyes behind her shitty glasses, her messy hair that she soon untied and he didn't know whether he _liked_ her because of or despite her messy appearance, Zoë who knew so many things but not that he liked her, Zoë who talked so much and listened so little, but yet understood him better than most, Zoë, Zoë, Zoë. He was drunk before long and yet he didn't mind, because she was there blabbering about some science thing that he was far too inebriated to understand a thing about. So he did the best thing he could think of to shut her up. He pulled her to his lap and locked their lips together, and kisses led to kisses led to clothes coming off led to passion and pleasure and before long, Zoë made him the happiest man to ever live under the sky of Paris.


	3. Leur bonheur se construit

Zoë slowly emerged from slumber, her senses awakening one by one. Her head was pounding painfully and her mouth tasted like alcohol. She swallowed. Nope, sadly, the taste would not go away just like that. It tasted like… she swallowed again… like wine. Red wine. Actually, it smelled like red wine too. In no small amount. She rubbed her eyes and stretched. There was a damp patch next to her left arm and she prayed to God it was also red wine and not some horrible hangover surprise, which had happened to her on more than one occasion whenever she drank too much. Then, all of a sudden her mind went blank when she felt an arm wrapped around her waist − her naked waist − pulling her closer, and she was pressed right against someone just as naked as she was, and heard the sound of that person breathing right in front of her. She opened her eyes wide at once to face a sleeping Levi Ackerman.

Several reactions battled in her mind and she did not know what to think at first. Her gut reaction upon seeing him sleep was that she'd never seen him so peaceful and _beautiful_. He was not smiling (she had given up hope long ago of ever seeing smile) but his whole face was relaxed, free of all tension, and he looked as handsome as ever. Her second reaction was directly prompted by observing their current situation. Judging by their position, her massive hangover and — she checked under the covers — the fact that neither were wearing any clothes, the most logical conclusion was that they'd done the do during the drunken hazard fest that had been last night. Hit the sack. Done the beast with two backs. _Had_ _sex._ And Zoë was happy, no, she was _ecstatic_ about it. She'd harboured a crush on her collegue for months now and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't hoped things would take that direction the previous night when she'd discovered there was only one bed for them.

She tried to remember what exactly had happened. Her mind was still foggy, courtesy to the Bordeaux wine she had drunk the night before (and she had to admit, Levi had been absolutely right, Bordeaux _was_ better than California wine), but she was sure she could still remember some things. She remembered they had decided to drink because Levi was grumpy (though the wine had not made him that much more agreeble at first), they had been tipsy, then rather intoxicated, then straight up drunk. At some point late at night, Levi had pulled her to his lap and put his tongue in her mouth like a horny teenager. The rest was history. She did not remember everything vividly, which she was extremely sorry about, not remembering their first time, but glimpses of the night were still engrained in her mind. The way he'd held her so very tight against him, the way he'd been so caring for her the whole time, far more gentle than she'd expect coming from such a rough man (though their frolics had not lacked passion in the least, and maybe that was the alcohol setting the pace for him anyway), far more than she usually liked, the way they'd done it once, twice, three times in a row, or was it four times, she did not remember for sure, the way he'd fallen asleep not too long after they were done with his head on her breasts and her hand in his hair. She couldn't remember everything, but not all of it was gone either, and for that she was thankful.

She turned her neck to glance at the alarm clock on the night stand. Seven thirty. They had asked the students to be in the dining hall by eight. She had no idea how she managed to wake up at a perfectly reasonable time when they'd slept so little the night before, but she had always been a morning person, so that was probably it. In fact, she was also a night person. And an afternoon person. All things considered, there was barely a time in the day Zoë Hange felt tired. Not even when she was hungover. Her head was pounding and her heart was beating far quicker than was healthy but she stood up despite everything, leaving her now lover's embrace. Somehow, Levi did not seem like he would be a joyful little sunshine of sweetness if she woke him up, so she decided she might as well let him sleep as long as he wanted.

Whistling merrily before reminding herself that she shouldn't wake him, she stretched her arms above her head (her body wasn't sore per say, but she could definitely feel last night in her muscles), put on her glasses and made her way to the window to watch the sky of Paris on this fine day. It was the bluest of blues. Smiling, she turned around to look at the sleeping beauty in the bed. She giggled to herself when she noted Levi's back and butt weren't covered by the bedsheets and were bare for her to see. Now there was a sight she could get used to. She looked at the clock. 7:35. She sniffed at her armpits and was about to grab her clothes from her bag, still on the floor where she had left it after Levi had refused she used the same wardrobe as him, when he made one of these sleeping sounds that she never thought she'd hear coming from him, halfway between a snore and a groan. It made her think about what he'd say if she didn't bathe. She thought twice about her decision and instead took her shower gel and headed to the bathroom.

The water temperature was just right − like everything on this beautiful morning, if you didn't count the nasty taste left in her mouth from yesterday's drinking and the headache. She didn't mind that one bit, if it was the price to pay to be with Levi. Her shower was nice and short and refreshing and she got out once she was clean (not just clean but Levi clean, just to be sure). She brushed her hair, though just barely, popped two painkiller pills into her mouth to get rid of that headache in no time (not that it usually worked, but still, it was better than doing nothing), and went back to the room to change. Levi was still sleeping soundly. She put on clean jeans, a yellow button-down, and tied her hair in a ponytail. She checked the time. 7:55. Not bad. Leaning down, she pressed a kiss on Levi's cheek, and there it was, that special expression his mouth took when he deeply wanted to smile but didn't. Lighthearted and in a little bubble of happiness, she took her key card and left the room.

The students were all already at the breakfast table when she walked into the dining hall. She knew something was up as soon as she heard them whisper excitedly when they caught sight of her. They were all grinning to various degrees. Even silent and discreet Mikasa was hiding flushed cheeks behind her scarf and her eyes twinkled with mirth.  
"Hello!" she said in her best happiest most motivated most cheerful voice.  
"Good morning, Ms Hange!" they replied, giggling behind their hands.  
She grabbed a baguette and tore a piece of it, cutting it open with a knife, and was about to spread butter and jam on it when she noticed all of them were staring at her with adorable little smirks. She put the knife down and looked at them expectantly. Finally, after exchanging looks that clearly said "Who's going to say it?", Jean spoke up, barely hiding the knowing tone in his voice.  
"Fun time last night, huh?"  
All students stifled a laugh, even stonefaced Annie and cute innocent Armin and Christa. For half a second, this unsettled her, until she decided that, if she was going to be with Levi, it wouldn't matter that they knew anyway and she might as well be honest about it.  
"As a matter of fact, I did have a _very_ fun time last night. Thank you for asking."  
Whatever they had expected her to say, she had said no such thing. They stared at her for a few seconds, blinked a few times, and all of them reacted at the same time. Eren and Jean started shouting at each other, Mikasa, Armin, Marco and Bertolt smiled stupidly despite their redder than red cheeks, Annie and Reiner looked at each other with a clear "I told you so" snicker, Connie and Sasha highfived and Ymir whispered something into Christa's ear that made the little blonde girl blush deeply and Ymir smirk smugly.

Zoë looked around her and observed the chaos she had created with a smile. She picked up her knife and went on with her breakfast, as student after student asked her the most inappropriate questions. She wouldn't mind answering them at all, in fact she was dying to, but she thought of Levi's reaction if she started exposing their sex life in great details and kept everything to herself.  
"How do you kids even know?"  
"Your room is just next to ours," Mikasa explained. "Originally it was on the other wing of the hotel, but you had it changed."  
How angry Levi had been when he'd found out they would share a room, she remembred. She wondered why. All in all, it was wonderful her French needed work, because if she'd been able to speak it properly, they would have ended up in two single rooms as he'd wanted.  
"I'm guessing you heard it all?"  
She had to admit she was a little bit, just the tiniest bit embarrassed at the idea of her first time with Levi being listened to by a bunch of horny teenagers. All twelve of them nodded.  
"Well," said Sasha, "originally, only me and Mikasa. Our room was just next to yours."  
Ah, right. Those two shared a room.  
"Then _someone_ texted her brother about it," she continued with a little bit of a sullen side-glance to Mikasa, "and Eren told everyone in his room, and they texted everyone else, and they came over to our room, and basically we all gathered against… the… wall…"  
Her words died and she suddenly looked completely scared, her eyes widened.  
"You're not going to punish us, are you?!"  
The whole table sobered up at once. Zoë took a sip of tea (she usually liked coffee better, but she was in a Levi mood this morning, so tea seemed more appropriate), a bite of baguette, and just when she was about to speak to reassure them (she liked playing things up a little bit), her phone vibrated in her pocket.  
"Just a sec, kids."  
It was a text message from Erwin.

_First night in Paris and you lovebirds are already chirping together! Congratulations seem in order!_

Zoë had absolutely no idea how he knew what had happened, but she did not care. She couldn't help the big grin plastered on her face. When she looked up, all students were staring anxiously.  
"Oh, right, punishment," she chuckled. "Yeah, no, no worries, I totally would have listened too if I were at your place."  
They all let out a deep breath and she smiled. Just as she was about to ask what they'd heard exactly, they all began whispering excitedly as they'd done when she first arrived and she had no time to ask them what the matter was because someone put a hand on her shoulder and she turned around, and her heart skipped a beat when she looked up at Levi, her Levi now, on their first morning together.  
"A word, Hange?"  
Beaming, she waved at the students, who all nodded frantically, and followed Levi to a smaller two-person table.

Levi took a piece of baguette and spread some sort of French cheese on it before looking at her, biting a piece off. He said nothing, but his stare was deeper than it usually was and she did not know what to think of it.  
"Is there something you wanted to say?" she asked tentatively.  
He swallowed, took a sip of tea, and turned his gaze down, suddenly fascinated by the teapot (not that it wasn't something he would normally do, though). When he looked up at her, right into her eyes, she couldn't read him at all like she normally could.  
"What happened last night won't happen again," he finally said.  
Zoë's heart dropped in her chest.


End file.
